Honey House Set Up

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I don’t have the luxury of having a dedicated honey house (like this one at a local nursery), but use my potting shed for extraction

Extracting honey every August for 20 years has honed my honey house preparations. Similar to painting, the prep takes longer than the actual work. I never extract in the house, as it will bring stray bees in along with the frames. I have a potting shed adjacent to my bee yard which I have set up as my honey house. Lacking running water and electricity is not a problem. I use a heavy duty extension cord to provide power (extractor and capping knife) and a tub of fresh water for any necessary cleanup and wiping up.

My potting shed

My potting shed becomes a honey house simply by clearing out a large area in the center to place the extractor and clearing off a nearby counter for the uncapping process. Covering the floor area with an inexpensive plastic cloth makes the cleanup aftermath a breeze.

Crucial to any extraction operation is a bee tight area. Once your bee-free frames are in the extraction area, you don’t want any stray bees from your hives to be attracted to the free honey that looks to be easy pickings. Many agitated bees flying around your head while you are extracting honey is not a good scenario. So, screened windows and a bee tight door are essential.

The extracting tank needs a wide open space to work around

Good airflow provided by a good strong fan is very helpful. The extraction process goes smoother in hot weather as the honey flows better in warmer temperatures, but that means that I am stuck in a hot shed for a couple of hours. I set up at least one powerful fan to move some air around, which has the added bonus that stray bees are less likely to land on me.

Supplies checklist

Bee-tight building

Power cord and strip for at least 2 outlets

Roll of paper towels

Basin of soapy water with a rag for wiping down sticky messes

A cooler of cold drinks ( I use water, but beer is fine!)

Plastic drop cloth for covering the floor

Roll of brown paper for covering a countertop

Uncapping tank with screened bottom

Hot knife and scratcher/fork — I set my hot knife on a cookie sheet to keep it from burning the countertop

Fans

Scale — It’s nice to see how much you extract

An extractor that is bolted to a base to minimize wobbling

Food-safe bucket with a gate valve

Metal strainer for filtering honey

Below is my setup that I used recently. I placed everything in advance as I didn’t want to have to return to my house for things that I had forgotten. Ice water for hydration is essential as the days in August in my area can be in the 90’s.

You need to leave some honey for the bees for the winter. I place the empty supers that I just extracted on top of the hive so they can fill them up with late season nectar to last over the winter. It depends on where you live as to how much honey bees need to survive. The further north you are, the more honey they need. I charge $12 a pound.

I’m entering my second year of beekeeping, so I’m hoping to be able to harvest honey this year. In looking at your list of needed items for a honey house, do you have any changes or additional suggestions since you made this list in 2018? Do you have a preferred vendor for getting these items? I already have an extractor on order…..I don’t have anything else yet. I’ll be using an empty bay in our garage for my honey extraction set up. Thanks for your help!